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Archive for February, 2012
Student Push for Ban on Plastic Water Bottles Irks Industry Group
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 13th, 2012
Yale Environment 360: Student groups on some college campuses are pushing their schools to ban the sale of plastic water bottles, a campaign that so far has prompted more than 20 colleges and universities to impose partial or complete bans. The bottled water industry has responded with a sarcastic video belittling the campaign. Student groups, citing environmental and health concerns of one-time bottle use, have worked with nonprofit groups like Ban the Bottle to have bottled water removed from vending machines and cafeterias...
Posted in Water Conservation 
Comments Off on Student Push for Ban on Plastic Water Bottles Irks Industry GroupE.Africa should be prepared for further food insecurity –weather forecasters
Posted by AlertNet: Katy Migiro on February 13th, 2012
AlertNet: East Africa, still battling a hunger crisis, should be prepared for another dry spell and further food insecurity due to the persistence of La Niña weather conditions that last year brought severe drought to the region, weather forecasters have warned.
"La Niña conditions are expected to persist until March to May 2012,' the World Meteorological Office said on its website on Sunday.
March to May is the main 'long rains' season for the region, which farmers and livestock herders depend upon...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on E.Africa should be prepared for further food insecurity –weather forecastersIs protecting the environment incompatible with social justice?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 13th, 2012
Guardian: It is the stick with which the greens are beaten daily: if we spend money on protecting the environment, the poor will starve, or freeze to death, or will go without shoes and education. Most of those making this argument do so disingenuously: they support the conservative or libertarian politics that keep the poor in their place and ensure that the 1% harvest the lion's share of the world's resources.
Journalists writing for the corporate press, with views somewhere to the right of Vlad the Impaler...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Is protecting the environment incompatible with social justice?Cities must tackle rising flood risk – World Bank
Posted by AlertNet: Megan Rowling on February 13th, 2012
AlertNet: Urban areas have been badly affected by an increase in flooding around the world, underlining the urgent need to manage the growing risk in towns and cities, says a new World Bank guidebook.
"Urban expansion often creates poorer neighbourhoods which lack adequate infrastructure and services, making them more vulnerable to floods. The poor are hit hardest, especially women and children,' said Pamela Cox, the World Bank's vice president for East Asia and the Pacific.
"But rapid urbanisation also...
Can Smarter Growth Guide China’s Urban Building Boom?
Posted by Yale Environment 360: David Biello on February 13th, 2012
Yale Environment 360: Coal money, generated by one of the world’s largest open-pit mines, has built a new Ordos, a municipality in the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia. A modern city is rising there from the steppes, featuring monumental government buildings, an imposing museum, and row after row of apartment buildings and subdivisions, all designed to accommodate more than a million new residents. Spacious roads wait for cars to zoom between residential and commercial areas or feed into the highway that leads to the...
How Much Ice Is Vanishing? You Don’t Want to Know
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 13th, 2012
Climate Central: There isn't a doubt in the world (among serious scientists, anyway) that the sea has been rising for the past century, by about eight inches in total since 1900. There's little doubt, either, that the rise has been speeding up over the past couple of decades -- the water has been inching up about as twice as fast lately as it was for most of the 20th century.
All of that is a powerful confirmation of what thermometers tell us: that the Earth is warming -- the result, say those same...
With climate change, today’s ‘100-year floods’ may happen every three to 20 years: research
Posted by Physorg: Jennifer Chu on February 13th, 2012
Physorg: However, researchers from MIT and Princeton University have found that with climate change, such storms could make landfall far more frequently, causing powerful, devastating storm surges every three to 20 years. The group simulated tens of thousands of storms under different climate conditions, finding that today's "500-year floods" could, with climate change, occur once every 25 to 240 years. The researchers published their results in the current issue of Nature Climate Change.
MIT postdoc Ning...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on With climate change, today’s ‘100-year floods’ may happen every three to 20 years: researchSatellites for Climate Checks Get Boost in Demand After Durban Talks
Posted by Bloomberg: Chiara Remondini and Alex Morales on February 13th, 2012
Bloomberg: Brazilian deforestation and melting polar ice caps are feeding a boom in demand in the $2.1 billion market for satellite data, images and services used to monitor the planet.
More images means more satellites and that need has spurred the development of the European Space Agency’s Vega rocket, which lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana, today at about 7 a.m. local time to release nine satellites into orbit on its maiden flight.
“We’re adding this smaller brother to our launchers as there is...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Satellites for Climate Checks Get Boost in Demand After Durban TalksIndia: Growth should not be at cost of environment: PM
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 13th, 2012
Times of India: Ahead of a meeting with environment ministers of BASIC countries, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said growth is important for the people but should take place in a way which does not harm the environment.
"Economic growth is essential for the people, but we cannot allow growth to be pursued in a manner which damages our environment," the PM said on Twitter, according to the PMO.
Environment ministers of BASIC countries- Brazil, South Africa, India and China- are calling upon the Prime...
Forests: Rising temperatures push Andean species skyward
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 13th, 2012
ClimateWire: The cloud forests of the Andes mountains, bound between the Amazonian lowlands to the west and the peaks of the Andean uplift to the east, harbor worlds upon worlds. Within the mountains' mosaic of high plateaus, deep-cut valleys and steeply climbing slopes, unique ecosystems have flourished side by side for centuries, their equilibrium protected by the rugged terrain and 12,000 years of relatively stable climate. Home to nearly one-sixth of the world's plant species, as well as hundreds of kinds...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Forests: Rising temperatures push Andean species skyward